Metal Hydride Hydrogen Storage Tank and its Certification for Use in Real Operations
Abstract
The article discusses the issue of metal hydride tanks for hydrogen storage, their types, distribution and direct implementation of tanks in the real operation of equipment. The article also deals with certification and describes all the necessary tests established by the standards, which the designed metal hydride tank must successfully pass. The article also mentions the design of a tubular metal hydride tank, the outer diameter of which is 60.3 mm.
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Introduction
The lack of traditional energy sources in the form of fossils in the world leads to the research and development of other renewable energy sources. Hydrogen is an energy medium that is considered a renewable energy source, but hydrogen is considered an energy carrier. To obtain energy from hydrogen, it is necessary to use a suitable device that can obtain, for example, electrical energy from hydrogen. Such a device is called a fuel cell, which can be implemented in static or mobile applications in cars and other transport devices. For hydrogen technologies to be used in everyday life, continuous research and development must take place in several areas. The biggest challenges for the implementation of hydrogen technologies in everyday life are the production, distribution and storage of hydrogen. Efficiently storing hydrogen represents a key task for the implementation of hydrogen technologies in the transport sector. The storage of hydrogen is difficult mainly because of the very low volumetric energy density under standard conditions, as well as other demanding properties. Especially in the transport sector, for example for cars, buses, trains, ships and others, it is important to have hydrogen storage options with high volumetric and gravimetric energy density to be competitive with other conventional systems. For this reason, various hydrogen storage concepts and technologies have been developed in recent years.
The most common way of storing hydrogen in the transport sector is through high-pressure storage in the form of compressed hydrogen in a gaseous state. Hydrogen in such systems is usually stored in steel tanks at pressures from 15 to 20 MPa, but when using steel tanks, it is possible to achieve only 1.5 wt.% and 10-12 kg·m-3 gravimetric and volume density [1].
Conclusion
All necessary tests for certification according to standard STN EN 13322-2 part 2 were performed on the designed tubular tank. The tank successfully passed all tests, the most important of which were the hydraulic test until failure and the cyclic pressure test. Based on the results, the designed tank withstood 5 times the minimum required pressure until it ruptured and at the same time withstood more than 1200 cycles, which were determined based on the mentioned standard. The designed tank can be implemented in the real operation of the equipment, which will require a hydrogen storage system.